Ann Cleeves was awarded the Diamond Dagger, and Mari Hannah was presented with the Dagger in the Library award. The after-dinner speaker was Robert Thorogood, writer and creator of Death in Paradise, and master of ceremonies was noted crime fiction buff, Barry Forshaw.

The Ian Fleming Steel Dagger

Spook Street (John Murray) by Mick Herron

Also shortlisted:You Will Know Me (Picador) by Megan AbbottThe Killing Game (Bookouture) by J S CarolWe Go Around in the Night and Are Consumed by Fire (Myriad Editions) by Jules GrantRedemption Road (Hodder & Stoughton) by John HartThe Constant Soldier (Mantle) by William Ryan

CWA Gold Dagger forNon-Fiction

Close But No Cigar: A True Story of Prison Life in Castro’s Cuba (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) by Stephen Purvis

Also shortlisted:A Dangerous Place (The History Press) by Simon FarquharThe Scholl Case: The Deadly End of a Marriage (Text Publishing) by Anja Reich-OsangThe Wicked Boy: The Mystery of a Victorian Child Murderer (Bloomsbury Publishing) by Kate SummerscaleA Passing Fury: Searching for Justice at the End of World War II (Jonathan Cape) by A. T. WilliamsAnother Day in the Death of America (Guardian Faber Publishing) by Gary Younge

Celebrating its 60th year, the British Crime Writers’ Association has announced the first batch of its coveted Daggers Awards. The Gala Awards Dinner was held on Monday 15 July at Kings Place in London and was hosted by television personality and former Tory MP, Gyles Brandreth. The highlights of the Awards (so far announced) are:

Andrew Taylor has won his third CWA Ellis Peters Historical Dagger for his novel The Scent of Death. No one else has won the award three times.

The CWA International Dagger has been shared by two French authors, Fred Vargas (for Ghost Riders of Ordebec)Â and Pierre Lemaitre (for Alex). Fred Vargas has previously won the Award in 2006, 2007 and 2009.

The CWA Diamond Dagger 2013 was presented to Lee Child, from last year’s winner, Frederick Forsyth.

The 2013 CWA Non-Fiction Dagger was presented to Paul French for Midnight in Peking, which told the story of the murder of a former UK consul in Peking in 1938.

Stella Duffy won the CWA Short Story Dagger for her storyÂ Come Away with Me, which firstÂ appeared in The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime Volume 10, edited by Maxim Jakubowski.

The longlists were announced for the CWA Gold, Steel and John Creasey Daggers. They were:

CWA Gold Dagger Longlist

Belinda Bauer for Rubbernecker (Bantam/Transworld)

Lauren Beukes for The Shining Girls (HarperCollins)

Sam Hawken for Tequila Sunset (Serpent’s Tail)

Mick Herron for Dead Lions (Soho Crime)

Becky Masterman for Rage Against the Dying (Orion)

Sara Paretsky for Breakdown (Hodder & Stoughton)

Michael Robotham for Say You’re Sorry (Sphere)

Don Winslow for The Kings of Cool (Heinemann)

CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Longlist

Roger Hobbs for Ghostman (published by Transworld)

Liz Jensen for The Uninvited (Bloomsbury)

Malcolm Mackay for The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter (Pan Macmillan)

Stuart Neville for Ratlines (Random House)

Mark Oldfield for The Sentinel (Head of Zeus)

Andrew Williams for The Poison Tide (John Murray)

Robert Wilson for Capital Punishment (Orion)

CWA John Creasy Dagger Longlist

Roger Hobbs for Ghostman (Doubleday)

Hanna Jameson for Something You Are (Head of Zeus)

Malcolm Mackay for The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter (Mantle)

Becky Masterman for Rage Against the Dying (Orion)

Derek B Miller for Norwegian by Night (Faber and Faber)

Thomas Mogford for Shadow of the Rock (Bloomsbury)

Michael Russell for The City Of Shadows (Avon)

M D Villiers for City of Blood (Harvill Secker)

The CWA Chair, Alison Joseph said:

“The announcement of the Daggers Awards is always an exciting moment in the CWA’s calenda. The Awards Dinner is an opportunity to celebrate the best of our genre, to award our most talented authors and, most important of all, to introduce our ever-growing readership to more books they will enjoy.”

BEST CRITICAL NONFICTION WORKBooks to Die For edited by John Connolly and Declan BurkeBlood Relations edited by Joseph GoodrichMore Forensics and Fiction by DP Lyle, MDThe Grand Tour edited by Mathew PrichardIn Pursuit of Spenser edited by Otto Penzler

BestCrimeBooks.com congratulates each and every nominee and wishes them all the very best of luck.

The Anthony Awards are given out annually at Bouchercon. The nominating ballots for the 2013 Anthony Awards have been e-mailed to most registered attendees, as of 3/2/13. Others will receive ballots as their registration is processed.

The Anthony Awards are named after the esteemed California-based writer and critic, Anthony Boucher (1911-1969). Boucher’s real name was William Anthony Parker White. From 1942 to 1947 he reviewed popular fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle. He became a popular and respected editor, giving many influential writers their start. He wrote five mystery novels under as Anthony Boucher, starting with the ground-breaking The Case of the Seven of Calvary in 1937, and another two under another pseudonym H.H. Holmes.

Mystery Readers International have announced theÂ 2012 Macavity Award Nominees. Also known as the “Anthonies”, these awards are the ultimate accolade in the crime wand mystery reading world.

The winners will be announced atÂ Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention, which is to be held in Cleveland at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, over the weekend of October 4-7. The award is named after the “mystery cat” in T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats). To be nominated, books and Stories need to have been published in the USA during 2011.

The nonimees are:

Best Mystery Novel

1222Â by Anne Holt, translated by Marlaine Delargy (Scribner)Claire DeWitt and the City of the DeadÂ by Sara Gran (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)The House of SilkÂ by Anthony Horowitz (Mulholland Books)The RidgeÂ by Michael Koryta (Little, Brown)A Trick of the LightÂ by Louise Penny (Minotaur)The Two Deaths of Daniel HayesÂ by Marcus Sakey (Dutton)Hell & GoneÂ by Duane Swierczynski (Mulholland Books)

Best Mystery-Related Nonfiction

Books, Crooks and Counselors: How to Write Accurately About Criminal Law and Courtroom ProcedureÂ by Leslie Budewitz (Linden)Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making: More Stories and Secrets from Her NotebooksÂ by John Curran (HarperCollins)Wilkie Collins, Vera Caspary and the Evolution of the Casebook NovelÂ by A.B. Emrys (McFarland)The Savage City: Race, Murder, and a Generation on the EdgeÂ by T.J. English (William Morrow)The Sookie Stackhouse CompanionÂ by Charlaine Harris (Ace)

Best crime books are our passion and we will not countenance anything but the best, you understand. North American readers may be confused by our title: what you call mysteries are what we call crime books. This mighty genre covers a wealth of writing, from thrillers and suspense novels, to survival, hard-boiled noir and Golden Age mysteries. We enjoy such sub-genres as the political thriller, courtroom dramas, the techno-thriller, police procedurals, private dicks, a spot of adventure and even a heist or two.

Best Crime Books: 5 Great Crime Novels

Sometimes we don’t why the best crime books are our favourites. Sometimes they’re not even classed as proper crime or mystery books.

Brighton Rock by Graham Greene

The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon

The Ice Harvest by Scott Phillips

Wobble To Death by Peter Lovesey

Killshot by Elmore Leonard

Those are five wonderful novels but are they really the best crime books of all time. Of course not, but you’ve got to start somewhere. On a different day a different person would pick a totally different list of best crime novels. On a different day the same person would also pick a completely different list.

The thing about crime and mystery novels is that much of it comes down to preference. A big factor is style. Then there’s mood. Some aficionados rate P.D. James as one of our greatest living (or dead) authors; others can’t stand her or her writing. Elmore Leonard is seen by many as the finest author ever to pen a thriller, whereas others can’t see what the fuss is all about. During his lifetime, Edgar Wallace was one of the most read authors on the planet, who could write a novel in a week or less. Now it is hard to see what all the fuss was about. Different times, different styles, different likes and dislikes.

When it comes to the best crime books, everyone has an opinion and every opinion is valid. Happy reading!